In 2008, the mother of two boys was on a never-ending search to find a bag that she could use during her family's frequent trips to the Jersey Shore. Straw and mesh bags didn't hold up well to the sand and moisture of the beach, while canvas bags didn't last long before becoming filthy."I wanted something that was large enough to carry everything we needed, but that at the end of the day I could hose off and hang up and not have to worry about it," she tells CNBC Make It.
68-year-old's living room side hustle makes up to $14,700 a week—it started with a Santa suit he bought for $550 It took Vaccarella a few years to get a patent for the bag and find a factory in China. When she finally got her hands on a prototype in 2010, Vaccarella was enamored. Though she had no luck finding someone to buy her idea, she was convinced that she was onto something.
When her initial inventory sold out, Vaccarella was ready to make a major financial commitment to the business. Using money from her children's college savings, she placed a $30,000 order in 2012 for a shipping container full of 1,200 bags: a"scary as hell" sum that she said felt like spending $1 million.
With no product and no more money left to spend on inventory, her company was dead in the water. It would be four years before Vaccarella would sell a Bogg Bag again.Shortly after receiving her botched $30,000 order, Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast. Vaccarella and her husband Rosario donated the cosmetically defective bags as part of a care package for people impacted by the storm. They set up a Facebook page to let people know where the family would be helping distribute resources.